Scott Neuman

A worker in southern China was left hanging from 100 feet up the side of a high-rise apartment building when a 10-year-old boy, apparently annoyed at the construction racket outside his window, decided to cut the safety line on the man's rappelling apparatus.

Xinhua says the boy was watching cartoons ...

Some good news heading into the long weekend: Labor Day gas prices are at their lowest level in four years.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration says the nationwide average for retail regular was $3.45 per gallon on Aug. 25 — that's the lowest average price for a Monday ahead ...

For Malaysia Airlines, the tragic loss of two of its aircraft with all passengers and crew in recent months has hardly been the extent of its problems: On Thursday, the carrier announced a steep quarterly loss and today came word that it is cutting nearly a third of its workforce.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is warning that the threat to the U.K. from international terrorism is "greater and deeper" than ever before, as London raised its terror warning level in response to what it said were plans by the Islamic State and other extremist groups to attack the West.

Two volcanoes half a world apart are causing havoc today: Several flights have been diverted around an eruption in Papua New Guinea, and authorities in Iceland briefly put aviation on highest alert (again) owing to a temperamental Mount Bardarbunga, which has been rumbling for the past week.

Mount Tavurvur on ...

Scientists examining an unusual African fish that can walk and breathe air think they've learned a thing or two about how our distant ancestors made the leap from the oceans to terra firma some 400 million years ago.

The modern fish they studied is called Polypterus senegalus, which has ...

A court in Thailand has dismissed murder charges against a former prime minister and his deputy who led anti-government protests that triggered a coup toppling the elected government in May.

Thailand's Criminal Court ruled Thursday that it did not have jurisdiction in the case against former Prime Minister Abhisit ...

Beijing has rejected U.S. claims that one of its fighter jets acted recklessly in intercepting a U.S. Navy maritime patrol plane in the South China Sea last week, warning Washington to curtail or discontinue "close surveillance" flights near Chinese territory.

"According to different situations we will adopt different measures to ...

The FBI says it's working with the Secret Service to investigate reports that Russian hackers breached security at JPMorgan Chase and other financial institutions, stealing customers' account information in possible retaliation for U.S. government sanctions on Moscow.

"We are working with the United States Secret Service to determine the scope ...

After U.S. officials confirmed earlier this week that 33-year-old San Diego resident Douglas McCain had died fighting alongside Islamic State militants in Syria, the State Department says it's looking into a report that a second American was also killed there.

NBC, citing an anonymous source, first reported on the ...

Two Ebola-related deaths have emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country's health ministry says. If confirmed, it would be the first time in the present outbreak that the disease has killed outside of a handful of West African nations.

But Congo Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi insists that ...

Updated at 5:05 p.m. ET

A week after the gruesome beheading of American journalist James Foley by Islamic State militants, another extremist group, the official al-Qaida affiliate operating in Syria, has quietly freed another U.S. journalist held for nearly two years.

Peter Theo Curtis, 45, originally from Boston, has been ...

Marion "Suge" Knight, the founder and CEO of Black Kapital Records and co-founder of Death Row Records, whose artists included Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, was reportedly shot multiple times at a West Hollywood nightclub.

NPR's Nathan Rott reports that Knight is out of surgery, but there were ...

The U.K.'s ambassador to the United States says that Britain is close to being able to identify the Islamic State militant who carried out last week's beheading of American journalist James Foley.

"We are close," Peter Westmacott tells CNN today.

Foley's murder was shown in a video released by ...

Ukraine is marking its independence day with a military parade in Kiev intended to send a symbolic message to Russia, which annexed Crimea earlier this year and has actively supported separatist militias.

As part of the parade in the Ukrainian capital, which marks the country's 23rd anniversary since breaking away ...

Iceland is lowering the threat level on its Bardarbunga volcano. As we reported on Saturday, the warning had been raised to its highest level — red. Now, scientists in the island nation have ratcheted it down to orange.

Reuters reports:

"The decision came after the office said on its ...

Updated at 8:30 p.m. ET

Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown has made an emergency declaration after a strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake rocked northern California, causing dozens of injuries, damaged buildings and power outages. The quake struck at 3:20 a.m. PT, the U.S. Geological Survey says.

"The declaration means we've exhausted our ...

President Obama has ordered a review of federal programs that supply local law enforcement agencies with military weapons and equipment after concerns over how the police handled unrest in Ferguson, Mo., in the aftermath of the shooting death of Michael Brown.

A senior Obama administration official says the president "whether ...

This is not your typical "David and Goliath" tale. This time, it's Goliath that wins:

A couple of anglers fishing off the coast of Bonita Springs, Fla., earlier this month shot video of a four-foot Blacktip shark they hooked.

You'd think that would be enough excitement for one day, ...

Astronaut Steven Nagel, who flew on four space shuttle missions in the 1980s and 90s, including two as mission commander, has died after a long battle with cancer, NASA confirms.

Nagel, an Air Force pilot who had logged many hours in fighter jets and as a test pilot, joined the ...